Appendix

The exercises included in this Appendix are designed by Lakmini Grant Siriwardana, an ESL instructor at the University of Cincinnati (UC). Ms. Siriwardana is a doctoral candidate in the Second Language Studies program at the UC. Her primary research interest involves teaching academic writing using genre-based pedagogy with a Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach. these materials are part of the pilot project Ms. Siriwardana has conducted, to teach and understand authorial stance in academic writing among college ESL students.

Rationale

SFL is a theory of language, and it perceives language as a meaning-making process rather than a set of rules (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014; Eggins, 2004).  SFL stresses more on how individuals use language to get things done in a particular context. The problem is students often learn language in a decontextualized manner. However, SFL linguists show that writers make language choices based on context. Therefore, it is not only important to teach students genres structures, but it is also important to explicitly teach them how language is used to achieve different purposes in academic texts.  In the materials, therefore, drawing on SFL, Ms. Siriwardaba aims to facilitate students to analyze both content and language in the sample essays. In that way, students will be able to discuss how they can make linguistic choices to convey the meanings they want when writing. The whole text approach is used, because teaching language as isolated jargon may not be effective to guide students to choose appropriate language when producing different genres. I use deconstruction of sample essays, a technique introduced in Teaching and Learning Cycle (TLC).

For teachers

 Deconstruction of sample essays for content and language can be used to scaffold students gradually. The worksheets can be completed as groups, and after the students complete the worksheets, teacher and students can discuss the answers. However, it is important to encourage students to explore more samples which the teacher can provide access to. The goal is not to impose the structure or the template on students, but to help them navigate how based on context/purpose, writers use language and content to achieve meanings. However, I highly recommend instructors to teach the vocabulary for content and language before proceeding to analyzing these samples. For example, before writing argumentative essays, teaching the language of evaluation to students will be beneficial, with a meaning-based focus. I would use SFL- based appraisal framework (Martin & White, 2005) to teach the language of evaluation.

Integration of citations is a challenge for students, and it is not surprising because students must balance their voice with external sources. In the argumentative essay, students should incorporate outside sources. Since it is inappropriate to merely drop the quote or paraphrase from outside sources without explanation, teachers can show how the quotes/paraphrase can be properly integrated into the paragraph using the worksheet. Using the two example paragraphs, teachers can describe that writers need to introduce the outside source, and after that, they should also explain the outside idea for readers’ better understanding.

Opinion expression handout: When providing one’s opinion to a topic, writers need to be cautious with language. Sometimes students tend to be too assertive or not assertive enough.  Striking this balance between unnecessarily powerful language and moderate language is not an easy thing. Therefore, in the handout, teacher and students can discuss how to revise the expressions that seem “too strong”, so that these expressions do not seem overly assertive. Even for this activity, it would be useful to discuss in class how meanings change with different model verbs.

Acknowledgments:

I want to thank the CESL instructor, Esra Oz Cetindere as my facilitator. Material development would not have been possible without her permission to observe the ESL 1069 course. I draw on her teaching and even feedback to refine the materials.

                                                                                                — Lakmini Grant Siriwardana